Morunia
Lore The village of Morunia is one of a proud and rich history, besmirched and ruined over time. Morunia served as the birthplace of Raul Vevius and of The Golden Banner. Morunia was the first village to be swept up in the Vevius call for unity, heeding his call to their fullest. Morunia sent the first soldiers to shed blood in taming the lands, fronted the first goods as capital to found The Golden Banner, Spared labor from the fields to build the Capital City, and even offered the brickwork from its very buildings in the hope of some form of recompense. Compensation eventually came for those Vevius deemed worthy - The soldiers, the businessmen, the merchants, and ultimately the wealthy who ad climbed atop the social ladder on the backs of those below them - and the capital city of Morunia was no more. Her walls torn asunder to supply the new capital with building materials, the guards and soldiers taken to staff the new streets and palaces, the taxes hamfistedly applied to all that none could afford...Dissent and poverty became the new calling card for the once-proud people of Morunia. Riots swept the streets, and at one point attacks were launched against the Capital - nothing more than a peasant rebellion, and quickly quashed by Tavius Vevius under his wild rule. Since then Morunia and the Capital City have held an animosity against one another. The rich content to allow the plight of their lesser kinsmen, where disease, crime, and strife run rampant. Some still hold faith in Morunia and believe in unity under The Golden Banner, but to many they're simply the salt pillars upon which The Banner still flies. Economy The village of Morunia once stood as the pillar of the Western economy, yet now stands in ruin. Directly situated along the Golden Road, much of the money entering Morunia comes in the form of extortion and cargo that "fell off the wagon" so to speak. At one point, Morunia did have a legitimate trade in fishing and maritime affairs, but the docks have fallen into disrepair. The fields surrounding Morunia have been diseased, the crops burned by dissenters, the ground salted by bandits many times over. At the foot of the Capital rests stables, and some would call this the last legitimate business of Morunia, but the money earned is held by few, much to the distaste of the remaining villagers. Military Although technically under the jurisdiction the Capital Guard, Morunia goes unprotected out of both fear and spite. Generals no longer see the value of Morunia, only sparing the bare minimum of guards to escort caravans and suppress dissent. Two militant factions have sprung from the ashes of the guards' negligence however - Patriots and Dissenters (Official names to be released and changed out) Patriots - The patriots have taken to enforcing Western Law, and will lay down their lives as a first line of defense when the capital is threatened, be it by foreigners or kinsmen. Some have described the patriots of the west as zealots, and this has been evidenced in their strict adherence to traditions and law - and willingness to enforce their perception of it by any means necessary. The Generals hold in consensus that while they serve as excellent buffer forces, supplying them would be a liability in of itself, and thus have refrained from training or supplying them else the entirety of Morunia suffer. Dissenters - Those who dissent have been roughly swept up by a secondary call for unity among the peasantry. Led by a "king among paupers", little is known about the inner workings of this movement. While it preaches a message of equality and wealth for all, taken from those who hold it in excess, many scholars have noted a self-contradictory behavior. Many reports have come from Morunian slums of those assaulted and murdered over simple disagreement in political discourse Although the Military Council believes them to be a threat too minor to burn a village over, many are worried that the call for revolution will sweep across the continent, and eventually draw the aid and support of opposing kingdoms. Their voices have already been seen reaching as far as Holland, one of The Banner's most loyal fiefs. Government & Society At one point, meetings used to be held by the village elders, but those have long since ceased. Morunia has become a warzone, pacified only by Capital and Hollish guards escorting caravans. The fishermen, farmers, widows, and children have long since fled east to escape the poverty and strife of Morunia. Little is left of day-to-day life, with only criminals, dissenters, and patriots remaining in this shell of a city. Rot and ruin run rampant, bodies of those fallen from either disease, hunger, or war litter the destroyed homes. Bandits hold free reign through their unrivaled strength, and spirits forbid that any fool cross them. It is rumored that sailors of the Red Knave occasionally more their vessel at what remains of the ruined docks, but for what purpose no one knows. Justice & Laws https://docs.google.com/document/d/13EwSxYnmTgXJ1cY0uEei7D2rb7ysqm5xHIuwCIxjrwI/edit Morunia is subject to Traditional Western Law, but so few guards patrol Morunia that it is barely enforced, with gangs and factions often establishing their own rules. When guards are present in town however, even the simplest infractions and procedures tend to degrade into miserable bloodbaths that citizens of the capital city only hear of from the Town's criers.